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A one-day conference, with support from the Royal Musical Association and the Music & Letters Trust.

Saturday, 19 May 2018; University of Cambridge, UK.

Musical arrangements, according to Peter Szendy, enable us to “listen to someone listening”, to “hear them hear”. Arrangement and related practices (including transcription, orchestration, adaptation, reworking, translation, and completion) are musically ubiquitous, reinscribing pre-existing musical material(s) into fresh historical, cultural, and aesthetic contexts. However, the study of musical arrangement and transcription has been neglected within musicology, owing in part both to the lack of suitable theoretical and analytical methodologies for dealing with their processes and products, and to entrenched ideologies which privilege ‘originality’ and ‘authenticity’. This conference aims to bring together critical perspectives on these multifarious practices from within musicology and beyond.

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers on any related topic. Recognising that existing scholarship has often been narrowly specific to a particular repertoire or theoretical approach, we especially encourage paper proposals that consider broader implications of such practices for musical meaning, ontology, situation, authorship, and interpretation, as well as the social dimensions and mediations of musical transcription and arrangement, in the hope of drawing out theoretical underpinnings common to these diverse practices. We also welcome practice-based proposals from performers and composers.

-Perspectives from fields of translation, adaptation, and performance studies.

-Critical perspectives on timbre, instrumentation, and organology.

-The roles of transcription in ethnomusicology and popular music studies.

Keynote Speaker: Professor Jonathan Kregor (University of Cincinnati)

Please send abstracts (250 words) to <tarotmusicology@gmail.com> by 28th February, along with a short biography (100 words), contact details, institutional affiliation, and technical requirements listed on a separate page. Decisions will be communicated in mid-March. We will be able to offer some financial assistance towards expenses for students — please indicate if you would like to be considered for a bursary.

This conference is organised by a London-based, IMR-affiliated study group on musical transcription and arrangement, ‘TAROT’ (tarotmusicology.wordpress.com).

Paris, 19-21 March 2019

Call for Papers

The manuscript Paris, BnF, lat. 1139 is a composite manuscript whose origins are not precisely known. It was preserved in the library of the abbey Saint-Martial de Limoges, one of the most prestigious book collections of the Middle Ages, since as early as the middle of the thirteenth century. The manuscript includes the first expressions of a new way of singing divine praise. These compositions do not so much break with older traditions as add to what already existed.

The oldest and most important part of the manuscript (end 11th-beginning of the 12th century) contains many festive chants: tropes, versified songs (versus and Benedicamus domino, so called nova cantica) troped epistles and liturgical drama (ff. 32r-117r). Also added are votive offices for the BVM, notated in the thirteenth century (ff. 119r-148r), a full sequentiary dating from the end of the twelfth century (ff. 149r-228v), and parts of two other sequentiaries of the thirteenth century (f. 2r-20v). Throughout the manuscript, one can also find texts about liturgical practice and the daily life of the abbey (such as an inventory of altar ornaments, a list of the books in the library, and so on).

This heterogeneous anthology thus allows us to observe repertories sung during as much as two hundred years as well as evolution in the liturgical practices of specific types of celebration. As a diverse collection it reveals the creative dynamic and cultural exchanges enjoyed by Saint-Martial, whilst at the same time indicating a wide network extending across Southern France and beyond.

This manuscript is an exceptional book, that attracted at an early stage the interest of scholars:

– It includes some of the oldest testimonies of Aquitanian polyphony.

– It has the oldest collection of nova cantica.

– It includes several liturgical drama, among them the Sponsus, which is unique to this source.

– It sits at the crossroads between Latin and vernacular repertories.

– The notator of the oldest part used a sign in the form of a rhombus to indicate semi-tones. This notational particularity was quickly abandoned in the South of France but was widely adopted in the West of the Iberian Peninsula, especially in Portugal.

An inventory of the oldest part was made by Hans Spanke (1931); Judith M. Marshall devoted her entire, mainly analytical PhD dissertation (1961) to lat. 1139. Jacques Chailley (1952), Sarah Fuller (1969) and Leo Treitler (1978) also included this manuscript in their studies of the Aquitanian repertory. It appears that many chants copied in latin 1139 have concordances in sources not only from Southern France but also in the festive offices of the Circumcision from Beauvais, Sens and Le Puy (Wulf Arlt, 1970, 2000) in addition to other manuscripts from further afield.

This conference is open to scholars from many disciplines (history, art history, history of literature, musicology, philology, palaeography…) in order to tackle all the aspects of this complex manuscript. The meeting will provide an opportunity to fill lacunae in the historiography, especially in dealing with the more recent sections of the manuscript. We will therefore consider the manuscript itself, and, at the same time, attempt to place it within a wider context, beginning with the abbey of Saint-Martial and then within networks of creation and dissemination beyond the Limousin territory. The specificity of this conference will lie in the assessment of the circulation of artistic and intellectual practices. From this perspective, latin 1139 will be the starting point for a renewed study of creativity at the heart of the Midi and of its spread in space and time, but the manuscript itself will not be the only focus.

Papers might deal with the following themes (but are not limited to these):

Influence: comparison of Paris, BnF, latin 1139 with other sources

– palaeographic questions, both musical and textual; the use of the neumatic characteristics of the manuscript’s notations in other traditions (above all in the Iberian Peninsula);

– musical and literary features of the repertory;

– codicological approaches, presentation, layout and decoration of the manuscript in relation to a larger context of manuscripts.

Dissemination: Saint-Martial de Limoges as a musical and artistic centre

– the position of Saint-Martial with regard to the dissemination of repertories and artistic practices from the Limousin into other regions;

– the abbey as a creative centre as well as its reception of external material;

– the circulation and transfer of manuscripts to and from the library of Saint-Martial;

– the liturgy and communal life of the abbey, as revealed by the musical repertories and the non musical additions in latin 1139.

Circulation: the reception and destiny of repertories notated in Paris, BnF, latin 1139

– consideration of the dissemination, networks of repertories notated in latin 1139: manuscripts from Norman Sicily, offices of the Circumcision, German manuscripts including the Carmina Burana, Cantatoria from Prague, etc.;

– relationships between the repertories of latin 1139 and Parisian sources of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (nova cantica, sequences);

– consideration of the complex material aspects of the manuscript as testimony to ways of using books and repertories: transformations and re-compositions in response to new needs;

XIVth INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MUSICAL SIGNIFICATIONMusic as Cultural Heritage and Novelty11-15 May 2018, The “Gheorghe Dima” Academy of Music, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Conference directors:

Eero Tarasti

Oana Andreica

Call for Papers

The International Congress on Musical Signification (ICMS) is a biennial conference on recent developments and future trends in Musical Semiotics. It is one of the major platforms and achievements of the project of Musical Signification, launched in Paris in 1984, and subsequently directed for over 30 years by Eero Tarasti.
Following the XIIIth ICMS in Canterbury, the XIVth International Congress will be held in the lively city of Cluj-Napoca, the heart of the historic region of Transylvania. It will be organised and hosted by The “Gheorghe Dima” Academy of Music, during the International Festival “Sigismund Toduţă”, and under the auspices of the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS), the International Semiotics Institute (ISI) and the Academy of Cultural Heritages.

Keynote Speakers

Eero Tarasti, University of Helsinki

Marta Grabocz, Université de Strasbourg

Nicholas McKay, Canterbury Christ Church University

Dario Martinelli, ISI, Technological University of Kaunas

Dan Dediu, University of Music Bucharest

Gabriel Bebeşelea, Principal Conductor of the “Transylvania“ State Philharmonic

Special attention will be paid to the following topics:

Topics and narrative strategies in music

Musical heritage in the age of digitalization and media

Semiotic theories and analyses of music

National and Local Composers in the Integration of the European Societies in the 20th and 21st Century

Popular music studies as the avant-garde of music analysis

The integration of the sounds of music into the study of culture and society

The reformation of music theory and musicology with the purpose of the adequate designation of as wide a variety as possible of musical sounds

Call for papers:
20-minute papers and presentations are invited on topics relating to any of the above conference themes along with those addressing broader notions of musical signification and semiotics.

Submission guidelines:
Abstracts of not more than 500 words (saved as MS Word or PDF file) should be emailed to oana.andreica[at]amgd.ro (under the subject heading: “ICMS 14 paper proposal”) by 18th February 2018. Abstracts should be accompanied by a short biographical note of no more than 150 words. Please add the following information: Name, surname, institutional affiliation, title of proposal and abstract.
The main language of the congress is English, but French is accepted as well.

The HuCPeR 19th Century Salon offers performers chance to explore historical style, expression and ensemble performance practices in 19th century chamber music by working side-by-side with leading international performer-scholars. The event is designed to bring together musicians with an interest in 19th-century Historically-Informed Performance to make new connections, foster a practitioner community and explore challenging ideas in a supportive and open environment.

Five days of immersive coaching, workshops, presentations and discussions will be based within the University of Huddersfield’s Creative Arts Building, a state-of-the-art rehearsal and performance facility situated close to Huddersfield town centre. Participants will have access to pianos by Broadwood (1894) and Streicher (1870) as well as modern Steinway and Yahama grand pianos.

Participants will be placed into chamber groups to explore new approaches to 19th century music-making by playing alongside the course tutors. Alongside a daily keynote presentation by the tutors, each evening will feature a ‘salon’: a space for discussion, readings, spontaneous music-making and sharing of participants’ own research. Free time will be ringfenced for participants to explore new collaborations, read through repertoire, and have individual coaching. There will also be a workshop on routes into research at doctoral and post-doctoral level.

HuCPeR is grateful for the generous support of the Huddersfield University Research Fund to make this workshop possible.

*Applications*
Applications are welcomed from players of piano, woodwind, strings and horn.

Although the workshop is primarily aimed at period-instrument musicians, applications from players of modern instruments with a strong interest in historical performance will also be considered. Applications from pre-formed chamber ensembles are also welcomed.

Players of historical woodwinds must be able to bring their own instrument pitched at A=438-440.

If you are interested in attending, please email C19thsalon@hud.ac.uk for further details and an application form. Students should be of postgraduate level. An active interest in HIP research is welcomed but not essential.

The course fee is £100, including all tuition and one meal per day. A limited number of fee-waivers are available to those with no institutional support: these will be allocated in response to financial need and to ensure an appropriate balance of instruments for the workshop.

**Application deadline: 1 March**

Successful applicants will be notified by the 31 March. Please note that numbers of violins and upper woodwind will be limited to ensure balance.

*Travel*

Huddersfield is a large town situated conveniently between Manchester and Leeds in the North of England. It is surrounded by the beautiful landscape of the Yorkshire Dales, Peak District National Park and Penines, with access to many walking and cycling routes.https://www.hud.ac.uk/about/maps/

Public interview with Margarita Fernández (Grupo Acción Instrumental)
by David Oubiña

On October 14th 1958, at Gallery 22 in the city of Düsseldorf, John Cage, Cornelius Cardew and David Tudor premiered Music Walk. Among the audience were composer Mauricio Kagel, a newcomer from Argentina, and the German critic Heinz-Klaus Metzger. Cage’s work will leave a deep mark on these two spectators: that same year Metzger responds to the performance with a conference given at Darmstadt, titled “Intrumentales Theater”, where he proposed the first definition for this type of experience as “theatre that arises as a result of an instrumental performance”. Two years later, Kagel applied the ideas of Cage and Metzger in his work Sonant (1960), considered as one of the first to reconceptualise silence as a sound-action embodied in the performer (Kagel 1963, 1997). Since then he has become the main reference of the genre, extending his influence to all of Europe. Thus goes the “founding myth”, with a precise date and place, of the genre called “Instrumental Theatre” (Kaduri 2016, 342-345; Salzman and Desi 2008, 127; Craenen 2014, 55; Heile 2006, 34-35, Adlington 2005).

When doing a retrospective review in the field of contemporary music in Latin America, we find that in the 1970s, the Grupo de Acción Instrumental (formed by Margarita Fernández, Jacobo Romano and Jorge Zulueta), carried out at least four works identified under the genre of instrumental theatre, presented in Latin American and European tours. In parallel, the group Movimiento Musica Más carried out performances and happenings that sought to transcend the limits of the concert hall. This leads us to wonder how many of the works produced in the CLAEM (Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales) of the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella and the CICMAT (Centro de Investigaciones en Comunicación Masiva, Música y Tecnología), or by composers Oscar Bazán (Argentina), Mesías Maiguashca (Ecuador), Gilberto Mendes (Brazil) and Joaquín Orellana (Guatemala) can be considered part of these conceptions that expand the languages of both music and the stage.

This conference proposes a philological-historical research of the works, events and institutions little explored and that played an important role in the development of both instrumental theatre and New Music Theatre in Latin America, between 1954 and 2006. Although all time frames are arbitrary, we have taken as significant events the work Música para la Torre (1954) by Mauricio Kagel, and the “Festival Kagel 2006”, organized by the Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Colón in honour of the composer, who returned to Argentina after a 30-year absence. This festival involved a recognition of the composer in his country, which received him with an effervescent scene, especially in the production of contemporary operas and collaborations between theatre and music. Música para la Torre, an early, “fascinating and elusive” work (Heile 2014, 14), was a commission for the Feria de América in Mendoza, in collaboration with the architects César Janello and Gerardo Clusellas (Richter-Ibáñez 2014; Monjeau 2017). The work proposes, perhaps for the first time in the region, ideas of bi-dimensional theatre, in which light and sound correlate with the actions of the interpreters (Heile 2014, 21). In this sense, the time frame that we propose serves as a hypothesis to think of a back story for the founding myth that was Music Walk in 1958.

What are the boundaries between opera, music drama, ballet? The productions of the 60s widened these questions of the pre-war avant-gardes, surpassing distinctions between theatrical and musical actions, and consolidating new terminologies. Instrumental theatre, anti-opera, happening, “visible music” (Schnebel, 1996), contemporary opera – these are some of the new genres that gave account of this transformation. We propose to consider them outside compartmentalized definitions, to think of them as questions, as initiatives that stressed disciplinary boundaries and demonstrated that music is more than what is heard.

Some of the themes proposed are:

the reflections of the composers themselves on their practice and on their inspirations from twentieth century music and theatre as well as the “modern drama”.

the multiple relations between avant-garde and politics: works that specifically address a political issue or that offer implicit critiques in its structure of theatrical-stage behaviours and modes of expression.

technology as a keyword for thinking about the incorporation different media in music theatre: light installations, visual projections, electronics, sound spatialization, audio-visual recordings. This allows a consideration of radio and television as new means for experimentation.

the institutional and geographical contexts of production of these new productions and the role played by the “off” circuits – the alternative festivals and the different production centres. This also includes a diasporiccharacteristic of Latin American composers inside and outside the continent.

the challenges for the analysis presented by many of these works – that involve hybrid languages that include the movements of the actors and new bodily forms, images, staging. They are works that establish a permanent negotiation between the abstraction of the music and the concreteness of the theatre. The tension between these elements, which are often not in the scores and which can change according to each performance raises the question of how to analyse these works if we consider the permeable borders between the different categories and definitions, such as “Instrumental Theatre”, “New Musical Theatre”, “Music for Theatre”, “Contemporary opera”?

the characterization of the performer that is needed for this type of theatre and the type of training that is required. This raises questions regarding the role of the voice and new forms of vocalities, the instrumental performance as it relates to theatrical action, the influence among performers (musicians, actors, mimes, dancers) and the reconceptualization of the idea of performance in general.

These axes are to serve as a guide only. Proposals from different disciplines and theoretical frameworks will be accepted (musicology, theatre studies, art history, literature, narratology, cultural history, among others).

Paper submission

Abstracts must include author, institutional affiliation, title, and a summary of up to 400 words. Proposals will be accepted in Spanish, English or Portuguese and must be sent to timeal2018@gmail.combefore May 31st, 2018. The accepted speakers will be notified during the month of June.

The first jazz studies conference in Ireland will take place at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Conservatory of Music and Drama, Rathmines, Dublin, Ireland from 17 January to 19 January 2019. The event is delivered in partnership with the Research Foundation for Music in Ireland, the Society of Musicology in Ireland and the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research, Birmingham City University, UK.

In marking the centenary of the first documented jazz performance in Ireland, that of ‘Mr Gordon’s Jazz Band’ at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, we invite participants to consider who and what has been documented, by whom, and for what purposes. The committee welcomes submissions that investigating the power of documentation to shape the narratives and mythologies surrounding the music.

Conference themes include but are not limited to:

Documenting jazz histories

Documenting jazz in popular culture

Documenting jazz as sound

Documenting jazz in images

Documenting gender in jazz

Documenting jazz in film

Documenting jazz online

Documenting Jazz on television

Proposals are invited as individual papers, joint papers, proposals for themed panels and round-table discussions. Further information regarding submitting proposals can be found at http://www.documentingjazz.com

Enquired and submissions can be sent to Dr Damian Evans (damian evans -at- documentingjazz.com)

In 2016[1] a study of the German Cultural Council validated the obvious asymmetry of the sexes in culture and media, particularly with respect to the contemporary music scene. For decades the participation of women had been limited to performing artists, but there was also a remarkable absence of female composers.

Either randomly or induced by the study, contemporaneous initiatives started to discuss sexism in New Music. Examples of this trend include the founding of the group “Gender Relations in Darmstadt (GRID)” [2], initiated by the composer Ashley Fure at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2016. That same year this group presented statistics on the constantly low female participation at the Darmstadt Summer Courses since 1946.[3] Another example was the panel discussion held at the Donaueschingen Festival 2017 (transmitted via German Southwest Broadcasting (SWR)).[4] However, a comprehensive and fundamental scientific study that questions unconscious and subliminal criteria, for example the preference of mind over body, within the discourses of new music and performance art is lacking.

Methods of ex- and inclusion that ask for sex (and gender) or that include an interdisciplinary approach with criteria like social class, ethnicity or age, shall be questioned at the conference.

The symposium will take place shortly before the Darmstadt Summer Course 2018 to give impulses for the discussions. Position papers and panel discussions will include the following topics

The symposium wants to open new discussions; thus, the presentations should include basic aspects and questions. A publication of a selection of the contributions is planned.

Please submit abstracts (up to 2,000 characters including spaces) for 25-minute presentations, and contact details via the email address below by 11 March, 2018. Junior researchers are especially encouraged to apply. The conference will be held in English and German. Thanks to sponsorship from Mariann-Steegmann-Foundation applicants can receive travel costs (max. € 200) and accommodation (max. 2 nights). Decisions will be made until 31 March, 2018.

The 10th annual conference of the IMS study group “Music and Media” (MaM) will be held in Salamanca, Spain, concurring with the 11th edition of the international symposium La Creación Musical en la Banda Sonora. Both gatherings are part of the University of Salamanca’s 800-year celebration.

Academics, practitioners, and postgraduate students are invited to submit papers and/or panel proposals on the following areas of interest, including (but not limited to):

2009-2018: a decade of studying the interaction between music and media – retrospectives & perspectives;

music and documentary film;

streaming media soundtracks;

new methodologies for studying soundtracks in all audiovisual media.

Proposals for 20 minute long papers in English are welcomed. Each submission should include the following information: author(s) name(s), academic affiliation(s), e-mail address(es), title of presentation, abstract (300 words max.), (a) short CV(s) and a list of technological requirements (overhead, powerpoint, etc).

All proposals must be submitted by 20 March, 2018 to e.wennekes [AT] uu.nl

In recent months alternative facts, fake news and similar terms have become more and more commonplace among politicians, media and other public influencers alike in what is now often called the age of post-truth. Expertise appears to be discredited, gut feeling at least as important as facts, and facts themselves no longer valid and reliable. Often postmodernism and poststructuralism are blamed for the rise of a relativism that lies at the heart of post-truth attitudes. But is this really the case? And how should an academic subject such as musicology react to this development? Given the impact that postmodernism and post-structuralism have had on our disciplinary development, do we as academics in general and musicologists in particular have a special responsibility to engage productively with this challenge – as researchers, educators and last but not least as citizens? Are there potential music- specific reactions to the post-truther’s mindset? How can / should we adjust our teaching in this environment? And what role does music / do musicians play in the new “culture war” that we now find ourselves in? How is music utilised by either side? Are there differences in the responses from within popular, traditional and art music (and their respective musicologies)? Is our task as academics to neutrally analyse and describe developments, or rather to try and actively influence them through research, teaching and as public intellectuals – and if so, how?

This conference, jointly hosted by the UCD School of Music and the UCD Humanities Institute, and supported by the Society for Musicology in Ireland, the Irish chapter of the International Council for Traditional Music, and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (UK and Ireland) will investigate these and similar questions. We invite proposals for papers of twenty minutes’ duration to be followed by ten minutes of discussion.

Please submit abstracts of up to 250 words, together with a CV of up to 150 words, your contact details and the technical requirements of your presentation in a single, word-compatible file by Friday, 9 March 2018 to wolfgang.marx@ucd.ie. We also invite proposals for themed sessions; in this case there ought to be an additional abstract of 150 words outlining the rationale behind the session. We aim to notify participants within four weeks after the deadline.

Not only is Bacchus (or Dionysus, in Greek) the God of drunkenness, sensual pleasures, fertility, creative inspiration, and religious ecstasy, but he is also associated with love, dance and music. This multifarious symbolism is at the core of many works of art, ceremonial objects, musical compositions and choreographies, evoking contexts that are at times cultic, festive, moralizing, and even philosophical. The conference will be devoted to the powerful union of the two realms of wine and music in the visual arts. It will broaden the general theme of the exhibition both in its temporality (from antiquity to the present day) and in the balance of cultural diversity between East and West, exploring the Greco-Roman as well as the Judeo-Christian, the Buddhist and Islamic civilizations, among others.

Papers on this theme from all disciplines will be considered, including anthropology, archeology, art history, history, musicology, cultural and performance studies. Suggested topics include mythology (the history, cult and iconography of Bacchus/Dionysus and bacchanalia, as well as related goddesses, meanads, and satyrs [e.g. Ceres, Silenus]); history (Anacreon); religious and Biblical subjects (the Wedding of Cana, Belshazzar’s banquet, Prodigal Son, Child Jesus at the Cluster); genre scenes (royal, aristocratic and popular banquets, merry companies, tavern and family scenes, royal entrances, urban festivals); still lifes and allegories (Five Senses, Virtues and Vices, inspiration), among others.

Presentations are limited to 20 minutes in length, allowing time for 10 minutes of questions and discussion. Communications via Skype will not be possible. Proposals in English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish, including abstract (max. 250 words) and short CV (max. 250 words), should be submitted by March 23, 2018 (deadline) to <ims.bordeaux2018@cnrs.fr>.

Preference is given to proposals that address research topics and questions in an exemplary way. The Programme Committee will make its decision by April 15, 2018, and speakers will be informed immediately thereafter. Further information about the programme, registration, and accommodation will be available in due time. Selected papers will be published in Imago Musicae and Musique • Images • Instruments.